What should I go to urgent care for?

Urgent care clinics are an excellent resource whenever you have a pressing but non-life-threatening medical concern and cannot see your primary care provider that day. However, if your medical problem is life-threatening, you should immediately go to your nearest emergency room. Urgent care clinics are not equipped to handle such situations properly and will reroute any individual in a life-threatening medical emergency to the emergency room. With that being said, there are many services and treatments that you receive at an urgent care clinic! At AFC Urgent Care in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, for instance, we treat a wide variety of conditions and offer several different services, including the following:

• Abrasions, cuts, and lacerations
• Animal and insect bites
• Asthma and allergies
• Bronchitis
• Bruises, dislocations, fractures, sprains, and strains
• Burns and rashes
• Camp, Department of Transportation (DOT), pre-employment, and school physicals
• Cold, cough, and flu treatment
• Confidential STD testing
• Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
• Earaches and infections
• Ear wax cleaning
• Eye infections and injuries, including pink eye treatment
• Fevers and chills
• Flu shots
• Headaches
• Ingrown toenails
• Jaundice
• Laryngitis
• Lyme disease
• Nose bleeds
• On-site lab tests, x-rays, and prescriptions
• Pediatric care
• Respiratory tract infections
• Skin infections
• Sore and strep throats
• Travel Consult
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs)

What is the difference between a walk-in clinic and urgent care?

Let's start with the similarities! Both walk-in clinics and urgent care clinics offer convenient walk-in appointments and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Both healthcare centers can work in this way because neither treats life-threatening medical emergencies. Where they are different is typically in the level of expertise and range of services they provide. As such, while a nurse practitioner or equivalent often runs walk-in clinics, urgent care centers always have at least one board-certified provider on staff. With the added expertise on-site, urgent care clinics can provide a broader and more specialized range of services than walk-in clinics.

What is better, urgent care or ER?

While both urgent care clinics and emergency rooms provide essential healthcare services, the question of which is better depends exclusively on whether or not your medical concern is a life-threatening medical emergency or not. With that in mind, unless it is the middle of the night and you can't wait until the morning, an urgent care clinic is almost always the better choice for any medical concern that is not a life-threatening emergency. Since urgent care clinics operate on a first-come, first-served basis, you will not suffer the heinous wait times of an emergency room, which occur because emergency rooms are obligated to prioritize patients according to the severity of their medical concerns. Not only that, but urgent care services are also far less expensive than those of an emergency room! All that to say, your best option for urgent healthcare attention for any non-life-threatening medical concern is an urgent care clinic.

If you require urgent but non-life-threatening medical attention, our top-rated urgent care providers at AFC Urgent Care would be delighted to help you! No appointment is necessary, just come and see us at 265 Schuylkill Road in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM during the week or 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on weekends.